by Aluta Nite
Apparently, he was living with a concubine. The sibling relayed this message to his parents back home and they had no comments.
After sometime, he returned home but with no wife and he acted like he did not know what they were talking about. He stayed at home for one year then his parents decided that he should get married so that he could settle down.
He had no girl in mind, but they had one ready. He had no money for bride price and wedding, but they had other ideas. They told one of his older siblings to shoulder the responsibility of paying bride price and a wedding and he said no way because Kulioma was not ready to get married otherwise he could have made arrangements himself.
His parents borrowed money from the village bank and he got married to a village woman he did not love and did not know him well enough. They had two children one after the other immediately. Then he traveled to the city again for another job arranged for by his maternal cousin, leaving his wife and children behind.
His wife followed him soon after. His next-door neighbor was that cousin and he was unmarried. The cousin helped him secure that accommodation as he was there first. Then problems started. He was not paying rent and the landlord was now harassing the cousin because he was the one who introduced him.
The cousin ran to another older sibling of Kulioma to assist in paying the rent backlog so that he and his family would not be evicted. The sibling said no way because he did not even know that Kulioma was in the city along with his wife and children. And moreover, Kulioma was working. And what was he doing with his money?
Before long, the youngest child got seriously sick and died in the city and Kulioma did not know how to handle the whole situation. The same sibling was looked for again to help out, but unfortunately, he was no longer in the same city. He was on transfer to another city far away.
The child was buried in the city because of lack of funds although the grandparents on both sides would have preferred burial in the home area that would have involved a lot of expenses.
After the death, he went back home with his wife and his wife went back to her parents with the first child complaining of lack of adequate food and mistreatment in the city.
Kulioma did not seem to get another job after that, but he kept on disappearing and appearing in the home area for short periods of time. And he looked haggard and unkempt most of the time with signs of hunger and confusion hanging over his head.
Turmoil in the Neighborhood
Relationships are delicate affairs the world over, but sometimes, one sees what is so difficult for the brain to comprehend.
In one neighborhood, in the city, in a middle class housing estate, there were several incidences that shocked anybody that witnessed what transpired.
One tenant in one of the double storey houses did the impossible one night. His wife came home from work later than usual and he did not want to believe that she had been at work that late. She explained everything to him but he was not satisfied. As a result there ensued a big argument and a fight.
Unfortunately, this lady had suffered from polio earlier in her life and one of her legs had shrunk therefore thinner and shorter than the other. The argument and fight that started downstairs took them upstairs and the upstairs bedroom window was open.
He carried and threw her outside through the open window and she landed outside on the lawn with a loud thud and scream. It was like ten o’clock at night. The male neighbors got mad and went to tell him off because he could easily have caused great damage to her body.
The next day the lady packed her things and left him alone in the house. He also felt ashamed and uncomfortable in the neighborhood and left soon after.
Their next-door neighbor on the right hand side had an incident in a different scenario. The man of the house was rather promiscuous and was used to flirting with other females wherever and whenever opportunities presented themselves and the woman of the house got to know about his escapades.
One day he came from work, packed his car at the garage and slipped away quietly without telling anybody in the house as to where he was going. When he returned after midnight and started knocking at the gate for someone to open for him.
His wife opened the upstairs bedroom window and told him, “Hey! Just go back where you came from. Nobody will open for you today.”
He stood at the gate for like five minutes and then climbed over the gate into the compound. He went and tried both the front and back doors and found both of them locked. He therefore went inside his car and slept there till six in the morning when the front door was opened.
And that did not stop him from his wayward ways. Just a week after that, a lady neighbor living in the same court as his family was escorting a friend of hers across a bridge to the next estate and there he was following them because he was dying to talk to the friend of the lady and maybe even get to know where she was staying.
The friend told the lady neighbor that he had been following her for a long time even down town, but she had always put him off by ignoring him and moving on and that she had never opened her mouth to talk to him and she had no intention of doing so. Moreover, the friend knew his wife and children. The two women disappeared around a corner and out of his sight.
On the opposite side of the above two families homes, but with a road intersecting the two blocks, was a house occupied by bachelor who lived alone. One day he brought home a prostitute for the night after having a nice time in a nightclub.
What their agreement was is not known, but hell broke loose next day early morning when she wanted to be paid and leave but the man was acting canny. When he could not give her the agreed amount, she started a fight while making so much noise that woke up all the neighbors in the same court some of who were still sleeping while others were preparing to leave for work or school.
It was six in the morning. He tried to contain the fight in the house but he became overwhelmed as she burst open the main door crying, shouting, hurling insults and dragging him outside in the open on the front lawn and on to the road.
To make matters worse, she was not properly dressed a part from a bikini top and bottom on a cold July morning. The man was in pajamas. Those on their way to work or school forgot their missions of the day and stood on the pavements gazing like lost sheep because of the unusual scenario so early in the morning.
This drama unfolded for more than an hour as the lady would not have it in any other way other than the agreed amount in cash. She thoroughly embarrassed this bachelor who otherwise was always seen and not heard a part from general greetings.
She tore his pajamas and he had to go inside and dress up once more. She was agile and lethal with the shrillest voice ever heard. And she was in stilettos that she used to give him kicks.
Being a gentleman, he did not wish to show his neighborhood the animal in him and therefore acted calmly and quietly. His mission was to take her back into the house so that they could negotiate peaceful but she would not have it. She was like a wild animal run amok.
It was difficult even for the neighbors to get involved and calm her down in order for her to get into the house and get dressed at least. Someone tried covering her with a sheet so that she could feel warm but she kicked that sheet away and continued fretting.
Many people missed their buses and got late to work or school because of watching the free film. Those not going to work or school were patched on the upstairs windows while destroying their sights on the play on the road.
Eventually, the man went inside the house and called some of his friends who came in a car, grabbed her and put her inside the car and they all took off.
On the next block to this one lived a family of five children; three girls and two boys. Their parents were very orderly and humble, but two of their children, a girl and a boy were something else.
The girl was in her early teens and in junior high school while the boy was around nine years old and in elementary school, but with a rotten head, as far as money was concerned. What he did with
the money was only known to him. On the other hand, the sister had very loose morals.
Men came for her in cars, motorbikes, bicycles and on foot and it is the brother who watched out for them and alerted her through well-developed signals. She came out secretly and quickly, bribed the boy and went away for hours on end. And before leaving, the men had to bribe the boy too otherwise he would issue threats to them and his sister.
All this happened during school holidays, weekends and in the evenings after school. Whether their parents approved of what was going on or not is not known. Her time of return also varied from early to late depending on whom she was with and where they went.
But, one day one neighbor heard their father confessing to someone who maybe was reporting to him what he had witnessed and his response was that the boy and girl were a replica of himself in his young days and not their mother and that he was ashamed of it but he did not know what to do about it.
Unwelcome Guests
Lola got married to Akim in the city in a private ceremony where only a few close friends were present. This was so because Akim was from a different ethnic group from Lola’s and despite the fact that her family accepted him and welcomed him to their home, he knew that his family would not reciprocate her family's good gesture. He therefore saw no need in involving both families in an issue like a wedding, yet one side would not comply.
And as much as he knew that his people would object to the marriage, he went ahead and did it after a lot of thought because his heart and mind did not wish for anything less than Lola that he had known, liked and got used to. Nothing would therefore stand on his way or make him change his mind even if it were his family.
Because he knew his family’s feelings and would be reactions, he did not take Lola to his countryside home where his paternal and maternal families resided; not even to his mother who he knew would not have objections to the marriage. His parents were divorced and his father had another wife. The issue in his mind was that one never knows where trouble would start from. He was safe guarding against any type of trouble.
After some time, Akim asked one of his younger sisters who was staying with his nuclear family in the city where he lived and worked while the sister was undertaking some training and working at the same time to go to their countryside home region and bring their mother who lived far away from his father's home area to visit his nuclear family in the city.
His sister consented, went and brought their mother to the city. She stayed with his family for one month and it was a very joyous month for all of them. She went back to her home a very happy old lady. Lola was heavy with her second child at the time of the old lady’s visit.
As time went by, he started testing the waters by going personally with his three year old little daughter, Pen to his mother’s home while Lola and their few months old baby son, Dun remained in the city. His mother as usual welcomed the little girl and treated her very well the whole week that the little girl was in her house.
Pen too was so happy because she had already created a special bond with her granny through drumming and singing as entertainment in the city during the one month visit.
Meantime, Akim stayed at his father’s home and only commuted to see the little girl every other day. He never told his father or anybody at his father’s place that the little girl was with his mother. After one week, he returned to the city with his daughter.
When Akim and Lola’s second born was two years old, Lola decided to go and see where Akim was born or came from with their two children. After all, she had met his pleasant mother and had lived with one of his many sisters in her house for one and half years.
Akim was not in favor of Lola making the journey yet though. He was not willing to accompany her either.
And when he relented, he told her to only visit his mother and then return to the city. In other words, he did not want her to visit his father’s place at all. Not because he was ashamed of anything. It was because of the nasty experience he knew awaited her and his children.
But despite his fears, she told him that she would surely visit his father’s place and if anything, nobody would blame her for not making an effort to see his paternal family in their domain.
When she reached her mother in-law’s place, she told her too that she would make a visit to her in-laws’ place on the third day. Her mother in-law had no objection and in fact encouraged her to go by all means. Her mother in-law even designated one of her younger daughters, Atou, who was in high school then to accompany her on the journey.
On the second day, Misa, one of Akim’s paternal first cousins who had met Lola and her children on arrival in the local town, went to check on them and Lola told him to go and tell Akim's family that she would go with her children on the third day. Their visit was therefore not a secret. He is the same one who arrived by eight in the morning to take them to that home.
Breakfast was made earlier than usual on the appointed day. By nine in the morning Lola, her children and Atou, her sister in-law were ready to leave. They walked to the main road, a journey of thirty minutes and boarded a public minibus and by ten o’clock, they were alighting and heading to her father in -laws house which was five minutes’ walk from the main road.
At the bus stop, they met Soma, Akim’s younger brother while waiting for transport to the provincial town, twenty miles away. He greeted them and told them that his wife was at home and that he would be back in the afternoon. He was newly married and his wife was heavy with their first child.
They parted ways and Misa led them to Akim’s father’s house.
What happened next was like a horror movie. It was something worse than Lola expected or Akim anticipated and feared. It was full house with all the younger stepsiblings of Akim, both boys and girls present. Akim’s father was present too and Akim’s stepmother was at the market nearby where Lola’s group had passed by. Soma’s wife was busy in the kitchen.
There were like fourteen people in total in the house, but none of them welcomed or greeted the guests. In other words, nobody introduced themselves or the others to Lola and her children or exchanged pleasantries with them apart from Soma’s wife who made an effort and came from the kitchen for a few seconds to say hello. Her case could be understood in that she too was a stranger in this home and family.
Akim’s stepmother came from the market soon after with four small fishes on one hand and a cigarette bellowing on the other and passed by like she saw nobody new in her house. Lola and her group were ignored and painfully too. Whether it was planned she did not know, but the scenario was speaking volumes.
After about two hours of sitting like lost sheep in the sitting room alone, Misa came and took them to meet his parents next door. That is where they felt welcome, but they could not stay there for more than five minutes so as not to invite more wraths from the host and hostess’s house.
They therefore headed back to the misery in that sitting room. Akim’s father was now quarreling uncontrollably that one of the children threw a millipede into the pit latrine yet it is God’s creation and that a trader collected woven roofing fronds from the side of the house and whoever oversaw the transaction did not ask for payment for the material.
Atou feeling confused because of the loud and disturbing quarrel asked Lola in a low tone, “Is this how he is normally?
“I don’t know. This is my first time to see him and to come here,” Lola replied.
And Pen asked her mother while whispering in her ear the following question. She too sensed that something was wrong but she did not know what it was.
“Mom, what is wrong with him? Why is he shouting all the time?”
And Lola replied, “I don’t know”.
And maybe any question from Lola's side to anybody in the house could have sparked more sour reaction that she did not desire with her young children around.
Moreover, that was not the right place to start telling Atou and Pen what the real problems were. And, Pen was too youn
g to be told anything yet. But they heard it all from Pen’s grandma once they returned to her place later in the evening. Whether Pen understood what her grandma was talking about is anybody’s guess.
Lola’s father in-law sat on one side of the front verandah with one of his friends and his friend's small grandson. Akim’s stepmother on the other hand took a mat and went to lie down on the opposite side of the same front verandah while smoking her cigarettes and very unconcerned about the guests. The girls and boys passed by from room to room and to and from outside without talking to the guests.
Soma’s wife went on cooking till around four in the afternoon is when food was ready to be served. Lola and her group just tasted the food as a formality.
Of course the food was not palatable however appetizing it was because of the harsh surrounding. Dun never tasted a thing. The others pretended a little just to show that they appreciated the cooking. Hunger had disappeared with the continued roaring and their being ignored by everybody.